Friday, March 09, 2018
Four white-wingers were around the river mouth this afternoon.
These three....
.....and this one, which I'd also snapped a couple of days ago.
These Iceland gulls presented a variety of plumages reflecting their ages, although the only one I can be sure about is the 1st winter bird.
This one, with patches of adult grey and a pale eye, is probably 2nd winter.
The gulls all lifted off lazily when two dogs ran down onto the spit. The dogs weren't chasing them and they didn't bother me, so I'm not complaining, just stating a fact! I had a quick scan of the island where the promising pools were before, but the water has already drained away. There were some nice muddy patches, but no snipe - or anything, else, come to that. Up on West Terrace, I looked back over the area - and realised that all four white-wingers were on the golf-course spit.
They're among mostly common gulls here - while a couple of immature great black-backs and a black-headed gull (far left) are a reminder of the great range of sizes covered by the gull family. This was brought home even more at the harbour, where I was snapping an Iceland gull when a great black-backed strolled into the picture.
I loved the way the Iceland gull casually walked off. You could imagine the huge black-backed saying "Oh, don't move on my account" and the Iceland replying "No, it's alright, I was just going anyway." Well, no, you couldn't really. (I hate anthropomorphism!)
The Viking gull was also present. Wondering if the Iceland at the harbour was an additional one, I raced back to West Terrace and scanned the spit. Nope - only three white-wingers there now, so today's tally of Iceland gulls remained at four.
// posted by Christine @ 12:12 PM 
